“In a world that has felt crazy and out of control for a while now, it is a true delight to know that there are women in the world like the radiant Viola Davis and the incomparable Meryl Streep. Their words from this year’s Golden Globe Awards are both touching and eloquent. Faced with the reality into which we are all about to be plunged, Meryl Streep’s words resonate profoundly. They bear listening to and repeating again and again.” – Shawn MacKenzie

The following is a transcript of Meryl Streep’s speech at the 74th Golden Globes as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement.

“I love you all. You have to forgive me, I have lost my voice in screaming and lamentation this weekend and I have lost my mind sometime earlier this year so I have to read.

Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press. Just to pick up on what Hugh Laurie said, you and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments of American society right now. Think about it: Hollywood, foreigners and the press.

But who are we and, you know, what is Hollywood, anyway? It’s just a bunch of people from other places. I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey, Viola was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina, came up in Central Falls, R.I. Sarah Paulson was born in Florida, raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids from Ohio, Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy and Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates?

And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised in Lon — no, in Ireland, I do believe, and she’s here nominated for playing a small-town girl from Virginia. Ryan Gosling, like all the nicest people, is Canadian. And Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London and is here playing an Indian raised in Tasmania. So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if we kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.

They gave me three seconds to say this, so. An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that, breathtaking, compassionate work.

But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart, not because it was good, it was — there’s nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth.

It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege and power and the capacity to fight back. It, it kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can’t get it out my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.

Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose. OK, go on with that thing. OK, this brings me to the press. We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage.

That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution. So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood foreign press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the Committee to Protect Journalists, ’cause we’re going to need them going forward and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth.

One more thing. Once when I was standing around the set one day, whining about something, we were going to work through supper or the long hours or whatever, Tommy Lee Jones said to me: “Isn’t it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor?” Yeah, it is. And we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy. We should be very proud of the work Hollywood honors here tonight,

As my, as my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once: “Take your broken heart, make it into art.”

Thank you, Foreign Press.”

[First part and title were written by Shawn MacKenzie (Co-Founder with me – j.kiley) “Take Your Broken Heart…” appeared on Off The Rails – Track 451, January 9th 2017] The idea to create a joint post for Expats Post was my own with consent from my partner in life Shawn MacKenzie – She is an author, artist, editor, blogger, and a miracle worker. I wanted to include the transcript from the Speech and to follow it with a few other ideas.

Meryl Streep had the opportunity to talk about her career in films but instead she chose to speak out about the industry she worked in as all being people from every part of the Globe. Specifically, she wanted all of us to support Journalists’ Freedom as Written by the Founders of the Constitution of the US – to protect them from pressures and threats – to enable the Journalists to feel supported in their honest reporting of the news streaming out 24/7, particularly concentrating on the US as a main source of contention. Films can reach more people of all variations and can shows stories of people we may not know in our own lives – in order to grow more of an understanding of the need for inclusively and the acceptance of diversity on a Global Scale. Films are a Bonding in Good Spirit and Understanding.

I would also like to include a tribute to those we all lost in 2016, many of which came from the world of film, by the image you see below:

Sgt Pepper Album Cover Re-styled by Chris Barker

I Dedicate This Especially To Princess Leia and her Mom whom I will miss the most and to Alan Rickman who we all jeered in Die Hard & sometimes jeered in Harry Potter – [Spoiler Alert] who turned out not be bad after all. I am on the Good team in this debate. I know we all have those who we will individually miss. It was a sad year and may take some time to get over our tears.

I could not leave out the following statement – which I feel pretty much concurs most peoples feelings about last year 2016.

Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand – Happy Days Are Here Again
(apologies for the old cigarette ad at the end/part of Judy Garland Show)

This song is why Meryl Streep’s voice was so hoarse during her speech. She sang it at Carrie Fisher’s Memorial at the Compound where Mom Debby & Carrie lived in separate houses. The rest of those attending began joining in. Maybe they were trying to reach their voices beyond this world to send their love to Carrie and Debbie. This was their song they sung together and Carrie’s favorite. RIP & wish us all the best in 2017 – j.kiley

ps. Some great films were nominated this year and those who took home the awards were phenomenal actors & actresses. I use the word actresses hesitantly. It holds at a distance the word Actors as seeming inclusive to only the male population. I feel it should stand for all those who act in Films, TV Series, Plays etc. An Actor is someone who takes on a role not themselves and hopefully are successful in their portrayal. But still, too often, actor means him not her.

Dedicated to Meryl Streep Saying “She Knew” Saying “She Knew” When it’s a secret no one knows Why would anyone know Unless you are the victim Or in on the conspiracy The conspiracy to abuse Abuse children Women raped Anyone could […]

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